F2P Expansion classes

[BenaSPACE.6028]

I feel like one of the barriers to entry in PvP is that the meta builds to PvP are generally locked behind a paywall. Staff requires SotO, Dragonhunter is a popular choice, but requires HoT, etc. Go to metabattle, and you'll see that not a lot of builds are strong with just core, base gameplay. Core Necro and core Guardian are both more exceptions to the rule, and even they sometimes are better leveraging weapon mastery.

By limiting people on the ability to make meta choices only by paying a fee, they lose interest in playing it entirely. That isn't to say that the expansions aren't worth it, but for a game mode like PvP, it's pretty hard divide. Pay up, or quit.

My proposal: Free to play players are able to unlock all elite specializations for PvP by paying a small 10 gold fee on a character by character basis, and can unlock weapon mastery for another additional 10. These purchases do not work for PvE or WvW. (You can consider adding this feature to WvW, as well, but I feel it's less important there.) Naturally, players who own this content should still have this unlocked as usual.

This will let players still learning the game to take their time unlocking new ways to play, offer a new gold sink for the game, give new players objectives to shoot for, which heightens retention...
And most importantly, keeps them playing. As players invest more time, they're more likely to want cosmetics to show off, which means going to expansion areas (more purchases) or buying from the gem shop (More purchases).

[Clumsy.7926]

No, this would open the floodgates for mass smurfing (as if this wasn't already an issue). Buying PoF and HoT is kitten cheap for anyone who wants to play the game properly.

[Gotejjeken.1267]

Better solved by having leagues split based on F2P / paying.  

[Sahne.6950]

But they need the money from all 10 pvp players, to pay the bills.

[arazoth.7290]

2 hours ago, Sahne.6950 said:

But they need the money from all 10 pvp players, to pay the bills.

That's 1 way to get top 10